Let’s say a federal agency labeled all of its workers as essential in an apparent violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act, the statute governing shutdowns. What would happen if the matter came before a court that had refused to furlough any of its own employees. Would there be a potential conflict of interest?

“It’s a very interesting question. It seems to me that there would be,” University of Pittsburgh law professor Arthur D. Hellman, a scholar of the federal courts, told Law Blog.

Mr. Hellman said the conflict would be more obvious if the judge presiding over such a dispute had a hand in crafting the court’s own shutdown policy.

The question may seem academic. It’s very unlikely that anybody would have standing to bring a federal suit against an agency that defied shutdown orders.

“Very likely any such suit would be thrown out on standing grounds, but you would still need judges to throw it out,” Mr. Hellman said.